St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-30
PAwNED HER FALSE TEETH.
The Shocking, but Heroic Act of a
Wife Detained for Debt.

The Shocking, but Heroic Act of a
Wife Detained for Debt.
1t would be difficult to find any sort
of personal property that was not, under
pressure OF unforeseen circumstances,
at some time or other pledged for
the payment of a debt. But that
woman should pledge her teeth is GER
tainly something new. 1t happened
the other day at suburban pleasure
resort of the city of FraEkfort-On-the-
Main, Germany.
A young couple had enjoyed a good
supper and were about leaving when the
male half was shocked to find that his
purse was gone. He walked up to the
hOstler, told him of his dilemma, and
begged of him to let him go, promising
that the money should be sent the next
day. The landlord said he would de-
tain the couple bodily until the bill was
paid. Then the female half of the
couple advanced and begged of the
landlord to grant her private hearing,
which he did.
Then,in the back room. the lady pulled
out Of her mouth splendid set of teeth
in gold and offered it as a pledge for the
payment of the bill. The act of heroism
struck the Sordid soul of the publican to
the quick, and he allowed the couple to
depart after the lady had replaced the
teeth in her mouth. He received the
money next day.
Selling Widows in Colony Times.
1t was Tony Weller's advice to his
son that he ''beware OF vidders,' says
the Boston Transcript. In the colony
times the treatment by towns of this
class in the community was somewhat
peculiar. An Interesting article pub
llslied in the September number of the
Princeton Review, states that 1.-THE object
OF all town meetings in old clonial days
was to learn the towns mind; whether
it was for doing this, or for doing that,
or !, for doing something else. In the
warrants it, was written with capital
letters, and was alluded to as if it were
distinguished person, slow to act, and
and great" How to dispose of the
widows was subject which periOdi-
cally exercised the towns mind in
Wareham. He are some of the notable
cases told by the Princeton Review.
The prices at which the poor widows
were farmed out varied annually, but in
ITO their value was uniform at So each
per annum, taken as they ran. Their
keeping was so profitable, in services
rendered by them, as to induce the town
to vote repeatedly mot to build poor
house," and convenient plan for dis
posing of them was adopted; it was to
sell them at auction. At a town meet
ing in 1776 it was voted ''to vendue
the Widow Lowell" She was
accordingly set up by the
selectmen, and, as the records state,
''was struck off to Josiah Stevens for to
keep one year for the Sum of nine
pounds Six shillings & if she did not
live the year in he to have in that pro-
portion" But she '.lived the year in, -
and continued to appear at the nnual
auction. In 1882 the town voted to buy
her shirt, and then sold her again.
After transfers to various homes her
death is disclosed in this record of
September, 1884: ''Voted for wind
ing sheet and shift for the Widow
Lowell eight shillings." And that was
the end of her. Jane George lived on,
and into the next century, surviving all
her contemporaries. Through nearly
two generations the standing inquiry
of the farmers was. Who's going to buy
George? She began to be one of the
towns poor in 1857; she was set up at
vendue for the last time in 1908, when,
before she passed from the public stage,
dilapidated as she undoubtedly was, the
town voted to pay ''for Extra Mending
Jane George So